I'm now back from my week away visiting my family up in Shropshire and both my shops are now open again. Had a lovely chilled out week catching up, which was really nice as I don't get the chance to see them very often. Me and my sister Harriet baked some yummy cupcakes together when she came home at the weekend... the icing and decorating part was the most fun - as you can see we were going for the 'anything goes' style of decoration, but I think it works!
The recipe we used for our cakes was taken from a lovely book called 'Bake Me I'm Yours: Cupcakes' by Joan and Graham Belgrove, but I thought I would write it out here in case anyone had the urge to go do some baking!
Chocolate Sponge Recipe (makes 24 medium sized cupcakes)
Ingredients
♥ 3 medium eggs
♥ 115g (4oz) self raising flower
♥ 30ml (6tsp) cocoa powder
♥ 1.5tsp baking powder
♥ 1tsp vanilla extract
♥ 175g (6oz) slightly salted butter
Instructions
♥ Pre heat your oven to 170 degrees, and place cases in bun trays
♥ Put sugar, butter, eggs and vanilla extract into food processor and blitz together for 2-3 minutes. Alternatively, mix it all together using a hand held whisk
♥ Sieve the flour, baking powder and cocoa together into a separate bowl and then add to the mix gradually, folding with a spatula
♥ Spoon the mixture carefully into the baking cases (be careful not to overfill, they only need one good dollop of mixture each as they do rise a lot in the oven)
♥ Place tray in centre of oven and bake for approximately 16-18 minutes, or until the tops of the cakes spring back when lightly touched
♥ Turn out and allow to cool before the decorating fun begins!
We couldn't decide on which icing to make, so we halved the recipes below and did half pink, half chocolate!
Buttercream Frosting
♥ 450g sifted icing sugar
♥ 40ml cold water
♥ Few drops of food colouring if you want coloured icing
Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
♥ 175g sifted icing sugar
♥ 45ml cold water
Instructions
♥ Beat the butter to a cream in a food processor or alternatively use a hand held whisk
♥ For the chocolate recipe, sift the cocoa and icing sugar together and gradually beat into the butter with the water. For normal buttercream, just add the icing sugar and water to the butter, beating until the mixture is light and fluffy, then add the vanilla extract
♥ Add a few drops of colouring to the buttercream mixture if you want coloured icing
♥ Spoon the mixture carefully into an icing gadget with a star nozzle to make lovely swirly patterns
♥ Decorate you cakes with sprinkles, chocolate shavings, silver balls, edible glitter...etc
♥ Sit back and enjoy all your hard work with a well earned cup of tea and a cake!
To be honest, we weren't the most careful or professional cake makers in the world, but we had a fun afternoon all the same!
♥ 175g (6oz) caster sugar
♥ 30ml (6tsp) cocoa powder
♥ 1.5tsp baking powder
♥ 1tsp vanilla extract
♥ 175g (6oz) slightly salted butter
Instructions
♥ Pre heat your oven to 170 degrees, and place cases in bun trays
♥ Put sugar, butter, eggs and vanilla extract into food processor and blitz together for 2-3 minutes. Alternatively, mix it all together using a hand held whisk
♥ Sieve the flour, baking powder and cocoa together into a separate bowl and then add to the mix gradually, folding with a spatula
♥ Spoon the mixture carefully into the baking cases (be careful not to overfill, they only need one good dollop of mixture each as they do rise a lot in the oven)
♥ Place tray in centre of oven and bake for approximately 16-18 minutes, or until the tops of the cakes spring back when lightly touched
♥ Turn out and allow to cool before the decorating fun begins!
We couldn't decide on which icing to make, so we halved the recipes below and did half pink, half chocolate!
Buttercream Frosting
Ingredients
♥ 225g unsalted butter
♥ 225g unsalted butter
♥ 5ml vanilla extract
♥ 40ml cold water
♥ Few drops of food colouring if you want coloured icing
Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
Ingredients
♥ 115g soft unsalted butter ♥ 50g cocoa, Dutch processed if possible
♥ 45ml cold water
Instructions
♥ Beat the butter to a cream in a food processor or alternatively use a hand held whisk
♥ For the chocolate recipe, sift the cocoa and icing sugar together and gradually beat into the butter with the water. For normal buttercream, just add the icing sugar and water to the butter, beating until the mixture is light and fluffy, then add the vanilla extract
♥ Add a few drops of colouring to the buttercream mixture if you want coloured icing
♥ Spoon the mixture carefully into an icing gadget with a star nozzle to make lovely swirly patterns
♥ Decorate you cakes with sprinkles, chocolate shavings, silver balls, edible glitter...etc
♥ Sit back and enjoy all your hard work with a well earned cup of tea and a cake!
To be honest, we weren't the most careful or professional cake makers in the world, but we had a fun afternoon all the same!
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8 comments:
You say you are not professional cake makers but you had me fooled when I saw your first picture!
Those cakes look delicious - you can tell you enjoyed making them.
Cx
Oh gawd, I'm starving!! Have you read the Primrose Bakery cupccake book? We bought it for our daughter last Christmas and it is fab. x
Thanks guys! It was actually only my second ever time of cupcake baking but I think I might invest in a few more cupcake books and keep experimenting, you can get such pretty cases these days, would be a shame not to use them! xx
Yum they look so nice...and very pretty! :)
Those cakes look gorgeous and very professional - mine just never look like that unfortunately. The photography is pretty good too!
Yum! I'm impressed with your cupcake skills. I just made some (before I saw your post, actually!) and they turned out the color of yoda!
Mmm cupcakes, there's something very satisfying about a cupcake. They look delicious.
Oh man, I am so hungry for sweet stuff now! They look so yummy. :)
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